It's Us
by x4ashes4ashes
Summary: After HSM3 – Sharpay and Ryan at the airport as he leaves for New York. The inseparable twins find it hard to be separated. Ryan/Sharpay-Rypay if you want it to be.


Summary: After HSM3 – Sharpay and Ryan at the airport as he leaves for New York. The inseparable twins find it hard to be separated. Sharpay/Ryan, Rypay if you want it to be.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Notes: I wrote this a long time ago, before Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure. I'm afraid I'm always guilty of giving Sharpay a little too much credit.

/

She had said she wasn't coming to see them off. Had _vowed_ she wasn't coming, motivated either by resentment or denial. But she came. Almost too late. Perhaps she sensed they were about to go through security, because she ran all the way from her car to where her family now stood. She had even worn exercising clothes and tennis shoes – in public! – so that she could catch up to them in time.

(In fact he recognized the outfit, the second he saw a flash of pink, white, and black looming towards him at an incredible pace. It was that stupid work-out dress of hers, the one she'd worn when she'd ripped his heart out last summer. Why would she wear that?)

Sharpay grabbed his hand without even sparing looks to her mother and father, but she didn't speak at first. Maybe because she was catching her breath.

Their parents backed away to give their children some privacy.

Ryan had been too afraid to look at her face. Their parents were finally across the room, and he couldn't hide his gaze in them anymore.

He turned to her.

She was crying. Not actively, but her face was lined with tears. The sun poured in through skylights, it made her tear-stained cheeks twinkle. Her sparkly goodbye costume.

He was taken aback to see that she had been crying. He really didn't think he'd ever seen her look so genuinely sad. She could cry on command for the stage, whine and wail when she didn't get her way, and had sulked and pouted for most of the summer, but this was different. He could tell it was different from the second he looked into her eyes.

"I'm sorry," he said, not for the first time. His sympathy came from the deep of this heart; he gestured helplessly with his free hand. "I'm sorry you didn't get into Julliard. I'm sorry you don't get to go to New York. I'm_ sorry_ your dreams aren't coming true."

"Oh, fuck Julliard. Fuck New York." She gripped his hand even more firmly, and two freshly-squeezed tears ran down her face. "Fuck my dreams, Ryan. Just…don't leave me," she pled, begged, beseeched, her voice cracking pitifully over the words, looking very much like not a temperamental, but a _frightened_ little girl. She closed her eyes against an onslaught of tears but couldn't stem them and they poured out of the corners of her eyes.

Sharpay pulled his arm against her chest and hugged it. "I need you," she said softly. "I don't want to be apart."

Listening to her, looking at her, he couldn't doubt her sincerity. He believed every word she said.

She was too scared to open her eyes, scared of his reaction, so she kept them closed.

He threw his free arm around her back and pulled her close. "I thought you were angry," he whispered in to her ear.

She shook her head against his chest. "No! Well, yes, but not at you. I've done a lot of thinking this summer, Ryan. I knew I was being selfish, but I just kept pushing my guilt away. All I saw was what I wanted. But I don't want to be like that anymore. I'm so sorry."

Ryan looked around the airport helplessly. He couldn't just not go…could he?

He wanted to go, but he wanted to take her with him.

"I'm so sorry," she repeated insistently.

Ryan's thoughts had raced forward; he reined them back quickly. "I forgive you, Sharpay. I already had." He grabbed her shoulders in a firm, comforting grip. "What do we do? You're always the one with the ideas."

She shook her head despondently. "There's nothing."

He wanted to slap her back in to action. "I have to go, this is my chance."

She nodded, fatalistic. "I know. I'm so proud of you, Ryan… It'll go by fast."

That wasn't what he wanted to hear, he wanted to hear her beg again. He didn't want to be apart either. Not for a week, never mind for college. "Come with me."

"The flight is full; I already checked."

"No, I mean to stay."

"But how?"

He shrugged and laughed. "I don't know. We'll figure it out. It's us, isn't it?"


End file.
